creating search box to filter data

elimelim

first of all I'm using this site as a template for what I'm trying to do except im adding a search box on top www.dougv.com/demo/jquery_sort_records/js.php (for some reason link doesnt work so copy and paste into browser)

I want to create a simple search box that will search upon a certain attribute and display any results found (basically a filter). Here's what I have so far as part of the code.
so far the table appears well however I want to add a search box that will search upon the first name attribute.

any help?

<script type="text/javascript" src="jquery-1.3.1.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="jquery.tablesorter.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
            $(document).ready(function() {
                $("#sortedtable").tablesorter({ sortlist: [0,0] });
            });
        </script>

</head>
<body>
[code=php]<?php
            if(!$link = mysql_connect("database_server", "user_name", "password")) {
                echo "Cannot connect to db server";
            }
            elseif(!mysql_select_db("database_name")) {
                echo "Cannot select database";
            }
            else {
                if(!$rs = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM table")) {
                    echo "Cannot parse query";
                }
                elseif(mysql_num_rows($rs) == 0) {
                    echo "No records found";
                }
                else {
                    echo "<table id=\"sortedtable\" class=\"bordered\" cellspacing=\"0\">\n";
                    echo "<thead>\n<tr>";
                    echo "<th>Record ID</th>";
                    echo "<th>First Name</th>";
                    echo "<th>Last Name</th>";
                    echo "<th>Birthday</th>";
                    echo "<th>Department</th>";
                    echo "</tr>\n</thead>\n";
                    while($row = mysql_fetch_array($rs)) {
                        echo "<tr><td>$row[person_id]</td><td>$row[person_name]</td><td>$row[person_surname]</td><td>$row[person_birthdate]</td><td>$row[person_department]</td></tr>\n";
                    }
                    echo "</table><br />\n";
                }
            }
?>

<form name="search_form" method="POST" action="js.php">
<font face="Calibri"> </font>
Search: <input type="text" name="search_b" value="" />
<input type="submit" name="search" value="Search for your term..."> </input>
</form>[/CODE]

dalecosp

Well, do you know how to search a database?

SELECT FIRSTNAME,LASTNAME,USERID FROM USERTABLE WHERE NAME LIKE "%FRED%";

SELECT FIRSTNAME,LASTNAME,USERID FROM USERTABLE WHERE NAME REGEXP "FLINTSTONE";

And so on ... several times until you think you've got most of the possibilities covered.

Roger_Ramjet

Since you are happy using jquery why not use the datatables plugin http://www.datatables.net/
It is really slick, really easy to use and has all the sort and filter functions that you need built it.

annaharris

Thanks "roger" for sharing plugin link. It will be a great help for me in my programming work.